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Table of Contents
The Stroop Effect
Problem Scenario
Unable to decide which ink colors go best with the word choices.Broad Question
How does the concept of interference help to explain the Stroop Effect?Specific Question
Does the written word affect the rate to name the ink color?Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that if the word differs from the ink color, that it will take longer to name the ink color than if the word written is the same as the ink color.Variables
Independent Variable:
The words written in ink.Dependent Variable:
The time it takes to name the ink color.Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
Font and size of words written in ink.Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
- Attention - a.) a concentration of the mind on a single object or thought, especially one preferentially selected from a complex, with a view to limiting or clarifying receptivity by narrowing the range of stimuli.
b.) a state of conscientious characterized by such concentration.c.) a capacity to maintain a selective or sustained concentration.
General Plan
I will time how long it takes for many different volunteers to name different ink colors of different types of words. Some of the words will be the same as the ink color and some of them will be completely random words that don’t relate to the ink color. For half of the volunteers I will test them on the words that are the same as the ink color first. For the other half, I will test them on the random words that don’t match the ink color first. This will make sure to keep the experiment controlled. I will then compare the results to see if the written word affected the rate to name the ink color.Potential Problems And Solutions
If a volunteer doesn't correctly name the ink color, I will immediately tell them where they messed up and to start over from there.Safety Or Environmental Concerns
Someone may get a paper-cut.Experimental Design
(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)Number Of Trials:
20
Number Of Subjects In Each trial:
1
When data will be collected:
After every trial
Number of Observations:
40
Where will data be collected?:
School and home
Resources and Budget Table
Data Table
Variable-
Words
are
same
as ink color/
random words
differ
from ink color
Time Line
March 23d - 2 sheets of word sequences typed, printed, cut into strips, and put on index cards.March 30th - Data will be started to be taken. Don't Forget to take photos of experiment!!!
April 10th - April 13th - Data Taken and Recorded
April 20th - Data Graphed and put on Wiki
April 27th - Wiki finished and revised and edited.
April 30th - Everything typed, printed and pasted on poster.
Background Research
The thing that happens in your brain when you try to name the ink color was described in 1935 in a famous paper that was written by John Ridley Stroop and is now called the Stroop Effect in experimental psychology. Interference is one of the main explanations of the Stroop Effect. We automatically read words because from the earliest days of school, we learn how to read and we practice reading every day. We become so good at it that we automatically read and don't think about it. When you are asked to name the color of the word not the word itself, you want to read the word because, somehow, the automatic reading of the word interferes with the naming of the color. This is proved with this experiment using different random words that don't have anything to do with the colors and color words that match the ink color. The human mind is an amazing thing and we are still doing experiments to find out exactly how it works.References
"What Conflicting Mental Tasks Reveal About Thinking: The Stroop Effect." Science Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/HumBeh_p027.shtml?fave=no>.Detailed Procedure
- You will be given cards, each containing a sequence of of words written in color ink. The colors used are: red, blue, green, brown, and purple.
- Your task is to name the color of the ink each word is written in without making a mistake.
- I will timing you, so try to do it as fast as you can.
6. Time how long it takes for the volunteer to name the ink color of the non-matching words.7. Time how long it takes for the volunteer to name the ink color of the matching words.
8. For half of the volunteers, reverse the order and have them name the ink color of the matching words first.
9. Calculate the average time it takes to name the ink colors for each word list.
10. Calculate the time difference for each volunteer (i.e., subtract the matching words time from the non-matching words time.) Next, calculate the average time difference for all of the results.
11. Finally, make bar graphs to illustrate your results.
Diagram
Photo List
1. I will take a picture of the index cards with the words that match the ink color.2. Now, I will take a picture of the index cards with the random words that don't have anything to do with the ink colors.
3. This picture will be of the timer that I used for my experiment.
4. Next, I will take a picture of someone doing the experiment while I'm timing them.
5. Finally, I will take a picture of all the cards and the timer on top of them.
Results
All Raw Data
(See data table above)Graphs
Photos
Data Analysis
While doing this experiment, I learned many things. One thing that doing this experiment showed me was that the brain is a very complex and complicated thing because there were many people who started to read the words instead of name the ink colors of the words when I tested them. The data showed that it definitely does take longer to name the ink color of the random words because when the words matched the ink color, the volunteer could just read the words and not even bother looking at the ink color. Ink color that matched the words was so much easier for the volunteers to name than the ink color of the random words.The relationship of the two variables was very strong because every single person that I tested took a lot longer to name the ink color of the random words than the words that matched the ink color.
Conclusion
My question was, "Does the written word affect the rate to name the ink color?" and I concluded, after doing my experiment, that the written word does affect the rate to name the ink color. I figured this out when looking at the results of my experiment which tested the rate to name the ink color of different words. For the first trial, I tested the time to name the ink colors of words that were the same as the ink color. For the second trial, I tested the rate to which volunteers could name the ink color of random words that didn't match the ink color of the word. The rates to name the ink color proved my theory correct because the data shows that it took an average of 48.45 seconds longer to name the ink color of the random words.Discussion
I was able to answer the experiment question very easily because every single trial I did, proved that my hypothesis was correct and accurate. The data showed that my hypothesis was clearly correct because every trial that I did had the same conclusion, the written word does extremely affect the ability to name ink color. If somebody needed to know which color and word pairs were the easiest for someone to understand, they could use this data that I collected to help them with their decision of which word and color pairs they should use because they’re the easiest to understand. If needed, this data could be used by a scientist to learn about and teach about the human mind and how it works. My results benefit the society of science because it proves that there is something that makes you want to read words instead of looking at the color and naming the color. My experiment could have been improved if I would have tested more volunteers because it would have given me more results which would have meant more accurate results and conclusions. To make this experiment more advanced, you could test to see if gender affected the rate to which the volunteer could name the ink colors. Or, someone could test if the ability to read could change the results because as we get older, reading just becomes a part of our everyday life and such an automatic thing. The correlation between the variables is nonexistent because the data is so scattered since I used a different volunteer for each trial and not the same volunteer for each trial. Each volunteer named the colors at their own speed and they all had different abilities. I had some trouble doing this experiment because, in total, I only had 20 people to volunteer for my experiment and most of them didn’t volunteer until the beginning to middle of April which is way past the date that data was supposed to be collected. However, the data contained no errors!Benefit to Community and/or Science
By doing this experiment, science is benefited because there is now proof that it does take longer to name the ink color of a word that differs from the ink color. Now we know that there is something that makes us want toAbstract
This science experiment was to see if a written word affected the rate to name the ink color of the word. To test this, sheets of words that were both color words that matched the ink color of the words, and random words that didn't have anything to do with the color of the ink they were written in were typed up. These sheets were cut up and pasted on index cards. Then, the volunteers, by having them name the ink color of each word and recording the time it took them to name them all correctly, were tested. When finished collecting the data, it was noticed that the hypothesis was correct! When the words were random and not the same as the ink color, it took an average of 48.45 seconds longer to name the ink color because many people messed up and started reading the words instead of naming the ink color and they would have to restart where they messed up. Something that was also noticed was that for both variables, the median was very close to the mean of the data taken.Overall, this experiment was okay, but complicated to accomplish. It was complicated because there weren't many people who volunteered for the experiment and those who did, didn't volunteer until April.